Gears of War: E-Day launches as Xbox console exclusive

Microsoft three-quarters through 3,200 planned Xbox layoffs

E-Day, the prequel to the Gears of War series, launched on October 7 as an Xbox console exclusive, developer The Coalition told BBC Newsbeat. The release returns to the franchise’s origins, chronicling the start of humanity’s war with the recurring enemy species The Locust. Creative director Matt Searcy described the title to Newsbeat as “a mix of war story with comic book-y monsters that come out of the ground,” adding: “It’s a video game with a lot of heart, a lot of blood and guts.”

Unlike recent flagship Microsoft titles, which have been released on PlayStation 5 and in some cases Nintendo Switch, E-Day has been released as an Xbox exclusive, with a PC version also available. New Xbox chief Sharma, who took over in June, announced Gears of War would remain a “console exclusive.” The title had been widely expected to follow other high-budget Microsoft series such as Halo onto rival platforms.

Coalition studio head Crump told Newsbeat the exclusive status was a “natural choice” for the studio. “Gears has been an exclusive franchise to Xbox for 20 years now. It’s sort of entwined deeply with the brand,” he said. Crump said the series “carries the banner” for the console and gives players a “reason to be in the Xbox ecosystem,” which he described as the company’s mission since day one.

The original Gears of War debuted on the Xbox 360 in 2006 and helped popularise cover-based shooting, a subgenre that added a strategic dimension to third-person combat. Cooperative multiplayer, another feature that helped define the series, has returned for E-Day. The game has been well-received by critics and players, according to Newsbeat.

Critics quoted by Newsbeat questioned whether the exclusive approach can generate enough revenue to recoup the game’s development costs at a time when console hardware prices have risen. Xbox trails both Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Switch consoles in market share. Xbox Series X prices rose over the summer due to the rising cost of memory chips; a separate BBC report said the console’s price was increased by £170.

Asked what would constitute success for E-Day, Crump acknowledged the studio has financial targets and goals for the number of players it wants to reach, but said The Coalition takes a “broader view” of the game’s role. “We measure things like, are we showcasing the platform? Are we pushing the hardware to its limits? Are we showcasing what the Xbox is capable of?” he said. “Our goal basically is to be the best-looking game on the Xbox and really show the industry what’s possible with our hardware.” Crump added that the game is intended to drive subscribers to Game Pass, Microsoft’s Netflix-style subscription service. A separate BBC report said Xbox caps cloud gaming at 15 hours a month for Game Pass subscribers.

The release coincides with a wide-scale restructuring at Xbox. In July, Sharma told employees the company planned 3,200 job losses across Xbox-owned studios over the current financial year. Microsoft said last month it was about three-quarters of the way through that plan. The Coalition has mostly avoided cuts, though one of E-Day’s narrative directors announced last month that he had been laid off.

Reports cited by Newsbeat indicated that developers at the studio are concerned they could be at risk now that the game has shipped. Asked about those concerns, Crump said: “What I say to myself, what I say to the team, is we just we need to focus on the things that we can control. For us that’s about shipping a great game that people are going to love and I feel like, as a team, we’ve done that.”

Crump said E-Day would provide a “great foundation” for future entries in the series, and insisted “the next game will not take nearly as long” to develop. Asked about concerns over institutional knowledge at the studio, Crump said the Coalition’s leadership team has “worked together for upwards of 20 years,” providing continuity even as developers at other Xbox studios have told the BBC they fear a loss of experienced staff from the wider layoffs.